Water Reuse and Desalination Engineering (WARDE) Final Report Public Part 509971-LLP-1-2010-1-ES-ERASMUS-ECDSP
Project information Project acronym: Project title: Project number: Sub-programme or KA: Project website: WARDE Master on Water Reuse and desalination Engineering 509971-LLP-1-2010-1-ES-ERASMUS-ECDSP ERASMUS www.datwater.eu Reporting period: From 01/10/2010 To 31/12/2012 Report version: 1 Date of preparation: 14/12/2012 Beneficiary organisation: Universitat Autònoma Barcelona Project coordinator: MR. Ramon Vilanova Project coordinator organisation: Universitat Autònoma Barcelona Project coordinator telephone number: +34-93-5812197 Project coordinator email address: Ramon.Vilanova@uab.cat This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. 2008 Copyright Education, Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency. 509971-LLP-1-2010-1-ES-ERASMUS-ECDSP 2 / 17
The document may be freely copied and distributed provided that no modifications are made, that the source is acknowledged and that this copyright notice is included. 509971-LLP-1-2010-1-ES-ERASMUS-ECDSP 3 / 17
Executive Summary Political and Educational Context The objective of the curriculum developed within the framework of this project is to fill a rapidly developing gap that is emerging for graduates that are trained in key processes and management associated with water supply and reuse. There is great demand for such graduates at the Masters level in this field to supply the researchers and engineers needed by industry. In fact, the problem of diminishing clean fresh-water resources facing Southern Europe and most other parts of the world is very serious. Water is essential for life and is central to both industry and agriculture. The demands on water infrastructure are increasing and have to deal with population growth and climate change. Furthermore, in all Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries, the scarcity of conventional fresh water resources poses a serious threat to their sustainable socio-economic development. In planning for water uses in various human activities, especially in such arid areas, a primary objective should be sustainable development. This target transcends national boundaries, demanding that society should utilize available water resources in a way that will ensure their availability for generations to come. In addition to political vision, water availability problems need technological know-how for their solution. As an academic field, environmental protection and pollution control was born at the earliest after 1945, and has since expanded within the boundaries of the more or less traditional fields of Civil and Chemical Engineering with influence from the Biological Sciences. In recent years, however, in the view of new and more challenging tasks, the field has acquired new inputs on the research front from apparently non-related areas, such as Control Engineering. Many environmental problems are related to large scale, geographically-distributed control system problems: the regional management of water and wastewater resources at basin scale are conceptually and technologically comparable to the management of a regional or national High Voltage Transmission system. The daily management and operation of a large wastewater treatment facility can be compared to a medium-scale industrial process, where optimization and real-time control can contribute to increased productivity (better effluent quality) and lower costs (mainly energy and process requirements). A similar situation can be found in waste incinerators with recovery of electrical and thermal energy. Unfortunately, this combination of knowledge has seldom crossed the realm of applied research and has never become part of an academic curriculum, except occasionally at taught postgraduate level. The designed programme The present consortium has developed a Joint Degree Master Programme entitled Desalination and Water Treatment Technologies (DeWaTT) according to the principles of the Bologna Declaration. The new envisaged programme has as main goal the education of professionals able to take decisions considering the operational, technological and social aspects in Water Management; specifically water reuse and desalination from an integrated engineering perspective by covering technological, engineering and scientific related subjects. The DeWaTT scheme offers a unique programme of education in Desalination and Water Technologies. It addresses the major developing areas of the subject giving the prospective student state of the art knowledge and opportunities to specialize in 3 major areas of the subject, Desalination, Water Reuse and Water Control Systems. These are key areas of technology and infrastructure in a developing world that will be required to deal with the threats of climate change and help with conflict resolution based on resources. The Masters degree will fulfill the demand for well-qualified personnel required with an enhanced 509971-LLP-1-2010-1-ES-ERASMUS-ECDSP 4 / 17
capability for solving many of the water supply problems foreseen in the next 20 years. It will also support these rapidly developing commercial areas of water technology worldwide. Currently, there is no programme offered in Europe similar to the one being proposed. Project Concrete Objectives Specific objectives of the project were established as: Definition of an innovative programme, paying special attention to information technologies, a subject that is on the forefront of the environmental concerns. New economic and urban developments will require a sustainable approach for safe water supply. Give response to an increasing need in present society for continuous water supply either at domestic and industrial scale by identifying the common ground and foundations required to fit the learning skills and competencies expected by the scientific and labour market in this sector. Give a European dimension to the Master programme. This effort becomes of major relevance since WaRDE is essentially a matter of global concern. Promotion and intensification of the student and teachers mobility will contribute to provide this essential trans-national view. Increase the volume of cooperation between higher education institutions and enterprises by setting the proper links and communications channels. Professional sector, bodies and associations will be involved both during the curriculum development (programme advising and quality assessment) and delivery (seminars, real case-study, practicum). The project has two goals. The first goal is to develop a new curriculum with European experts and coordinators from four EU countries. That is an achievement in itself. The second goal, which goes beyond this project and is the necessary consequence of the investment, is to use this curriculum and organise a continuous transnational student mobility within the European Area of Higher Education. At the moment of writing the curriculum has been completely defined and approved at all participating institutions. 509971-LLP-1-2010-1-ES-ERASMUS-ECDSP 5 / 17
Table of Contents 1. PROJECT OBJECTIVES... 7 2. PROJECT APPROACH... 9 3. PROJECT OUTCOMES & RESULTS... 11 4. PARTNERSHIPS... 13 5. PLANS FOR THE FUTURE... 14 6. CONTRIBUTION TO EU POLICIES... 15 7. IDENTIFIED ADDED VALUE... 16 509971-LLP-1-2010-1-ES-ERASMUS-ECDSP 6 / 17
1. Project Objectives Grounded in results and other evidences we conclude that the goals and objectives we set up for the Project were fully accomplished including the more specific objectives of most of the work packages, namely: Design of the DeWaTT Curriculum to educate new water management professionals, with some unique features / scope: Give response to a need in present economy of well-educated professionals in the water sector by identifying the common ground topics and fundamental subjects required to fit the expected competencies (defined by the partners in cooperation with the professional sector). Definition of an innovative program of sustainable approach for safe water supply, it will promote a transnational environment considering operational, tactical and strategic issues from an integrated perspective instead of a compartmentalized perspective. An agreed and accepted programme for global water management engineers a curriculum that didn t exist before conceived according to a special European profile (profound social, linguistic and personal knowledge, skills and attitudes, towards shared work experiences and professional concepts; awareness of the European dimension, of the right to be different, ) while leaving ample space for local and national identity. Foster the use of ICT, as a learning subject itself, but also as an approach to support the learning process. Definition of the internal and external monitoring and advising procedures for quality assurance of the curriculum and program design. Attention will be given to the learning of local languages and culture traditions by including courses in the curriculum. The concrete objectives regarding the envisaged European dimension: Intensification of the student and teachers mobility. Enhance the attractiveness of the joint master program outside Europe by searching synergies with ErasmusMundus. Define and operate successfully with one set of entry criteria, application forms and admission procedures. Work for a joint diploma award, according to local regulations and procedures. Identify and implement the quality assessment mechanisms according to the European standards and guidelines for Quality Assurance in the EHEA. The concrete objectives regarding the joint Master program implementation and delivery: 509971-LLP-1-2010-1-ES-ERASMUS-ECDSP 7 / 17
Assurance of the academic and administrative staff resources. Definition of a business plan for ensuring the sustainable funding. Definition of the data gathering and monitoring procedures for the quality assurance. The readiness of the DeWaTT curriculum in all mentioned aspects: modules for the different intensification areas; selection criteria and entry requirements for students, tools for ensuring local engagement by means of language proficiency, tutoring, assessment and quality management - makes the second major goal of the Project possible, i.e. to be able to offer the programme in the next academic year. 509971-LLP-1-2010-1-ES-ERASMUS-ECDSP 8 / 17
2. Project Approach WARDE is focused on the study and development of a common framework in Water Reuse and Desalination Engineering (WaRDE) that enables student and staff mobility, and relies on an agreed map of core competences, and quality assurance for a future joint curriculum in Communication in the first cycle of higher education. The project is carried out by four universities and one research center, geographically distant from one another, with very different academic cultures, and in different stages as to the pace toward the European convergence, but all of them committed to submitting curricula to partners' scrutiny and open discussion. There is evidence that the fulfillment of the objectives of the Project and its outcomes and results are much related to the successful approach adopted, namely: - The coherence of the global conception of the project in terms of its goals, the selection of partners and the planning, development and monitoring of the project through work packages that proved to be most adequate; - The development of an atmosphere of sustainable cooperation and mutual understanding between the partners in the project proved that beyond the fulfillment of the objectives the personal interaction - in particular when it takes place face to face fostering mutual understanding - leads to the overcome of misconceptions; - In terms of the Project overall coordination, the principle of shared responsibility within a common framework was full accomplished through a systematic approach by delegating responsibility to each partner for managing parts of the project and developing the content of the respective module / work package. - The overall coordination has always kept a deep insight in the course of the work while interpreting the feelings and expectations of each and every one of the group members being able to promote and maintain both reflection and group cohesion. The project is arranged in 10 work packages that correspond to the general goal and the specific objectives expressed in the Project objectives above. These specific objectives constitute the major phases in the process. Every partner leads various packages, the coordinating university provides permanent support to partners, and coordinates and supervises procedures. This implies that contact between the general coordinator and the partner responsible for each workpackage is permanent, as well as among partners. In terms of the project overall coordination, the principle of shared responsibility within a common framework was full accomplished through a systematic approach by delegating responsibility to each partner for managing parts of the project and developing the content of the respective module / work package. The overall coordination has always kept a deep insight in the course of the work while interpreting the feelings and expectations of each and every one of the group members being able to elicit both reflection and group cohesion. At methodological/management level, project tasks are clearly defined and distributed. Cooperation is facilitated by the use of web-based and internet tools as well as the periodical meetings during the project development (E-mail and collaborative tools (e.g. bscw.fit.fraunhofer.de) for communication, coordination and information sharing, Teleconference). 509971-LLP-1-2010-1-ES-ERASMUS-ECDSP 9 / 17
The timing and distribution of detailed tasks are provided at the first meeting to launch the project. Overall coordination is provided by the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, which plans to prepare for each meeting of the consortium; and therefore each step of the project; with the university that welcomes to host the meeting of the consortium. Each university is responsible for a specific task in the development project based on its experience and expertise. Each University of the consortium will be responsible for promoting the dissemination of the Master locally and nationally from a distribution plan developed by the consortium. The method of work is therefore appropriate to achieve the objectives. Taking into account the needs, expectations and constraints of individuals, universities, partners and countries is clearly shown from the start of the project. 509971-LLP-1-2010-1-ES-ERASMUS-ECDSP 10 / 17
3. Project Outcomes & Results The aim of the project was to create a Curriculum in Water Reuse and Desalination Engineering (WaRDE). This aim was fulfilled by the definition of the DeWaTT Curriculum. All the deliverables specified in the project documents and action plans have been realized. After completion of the project, two kind of outcomes can be distinguished. Those that directly arise from the defined workpackages (therefore expected results of the project) and, secondly, some indirect results that raised from the consortium collaboration during this two years experience. Direct results that lead to the project deliverables: Project Management: a shared workspace (BSCW) has been defined and established in order to make available to people of the consortium all the information and documents related to the project. The BSCW has proved to be a successful tool for management of projects with distributed geographically partners. Curriculum definition document: establishing the modules, content and description according to a somewhat standardized ECTS description. The document also includes a state of the art analysis regarding the education in Europe within the field. The study demonstrates the innovative character of the proposed programme. The consortium, after analyzing the resulting curriculum decided to change the name of the programme from that one of the project. The title for the resulting programme will be: DeWaTT: Desalination and Water Treatment Technologies. Mobility Scheme: According to the curriculum structure a mobility is envisaged of at least being in two different institutions. Project meetings and minutes. Nine partner meetings took place. All of them are fully documented and conclusions agreed are reflected in the minutes. o Barcelona, Spain 16 th 18 th, November 2010 o Las Palmas, Spain 9 th 11 th, February 2011 o Volos, Greece 9 th 11 th, May 2011 o Pavia, Italy 13 th 15 th, July 2011 o Barcelona, Spain 20 th 22 th October 2011 o Las Palmas, Spain 14 th 16 th, December 2011 o Swansea, Wales, UK 12 th 14 th, March 2012 o Barcelona, Spain 25 th 27 th, July 2012 o Las Palmas, Spain 12 th 14 th, December 2012 Academic procedures and guidelines document: A fully developed document that establishes all the roles and obligations of each partner and the interplay within the consortium and the future execution of the joint programme. This document also establishes common procedures for fees, student admission, enrolment, etc. 509971-LLP-1-2010-1-ES-ERASMUS-ECDSP 11 / 17
Common Admission criteria has been established for all students. Also financial analysis and common fees have been agreed among all consortium members. ERASMUS MUNDUS proposal: The consortium achieved to submit a proposal to the last Erasmus Mundus Action 1 call on the basis of the work done on this project. As a result the proposal was not selected but was qualified as excellent, being rated with maximum marks and being the first one on the reserve list. Therefore a proof that the work done so far was good enough. Dissemination: A website has been created (www.datwater.eu) and the curriculum definition paper produced and presented at the following conferences paper was presented at the following conferences: o 1 st World Engineering Education flash week. WEE2011. 27 th Sept- 4 th Oct. Lisboa, Portugal o o Conference and Exhibition on Desalination for the environment clean water and energy, April 22 26, 2012 Barcelona, Spain 5th International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation, Madrid (Spain) on the 19th, 20th and 21st of November, 2012. Indirect results of the cooperation. Participants have enlarged their knowledge and experiences of complex European Erasmus cooperation. They got a greater and better understanding of educational development in policy and practice in Europe. They developed an European network among Engineering Schools interested in water related aspects. They have gained a larger understanding of European project management in terms of regulations, obligations and profit. 509971-LLP-1-2010-1-ES-ERASMUS-ECDSP 12 / 17
4. Partnerships The project of European integration requires the creation of an educational framework that will encourage the development of a culturally complete region, fostering interconnection on the foundations of shared goals and values. Starting from an acceptance of multiculturalism, communication allows common development through consensus, offering the student an accurate and complex understanding of the different European contexts, an awareness of common development and a map for seeking integrating solutions. As mentioned before the development of an appropriate atmosphere of cooperation and mutual understanding between the partners in the Project is one of its major achievements. To put together a group representing the strong diversity of the European regions has been a central option of the project as a strategy to demonstrate that while working together towards the fulfillment of the project s objectives the personal interaction and mutual understanding would lead to overcome eventual misconceptions naturally arising because of the multicultural nature of the team thus contributing to the reinforcement of an European identity. The partners of the consortium have the experience of previous collaborations both on education and research project. All the partners have a long lasting tradition in cooperating in research, education (teacher and student mobility) and in dissemination of knowledge (e.g. co-organizing international conferences and workshops). The partner institutions have been selected in respect to already existing cooperation and because the existing complementarities in teaching and research. The initiative emerges in this context to elaborate a programme able to fulfill the actual need for professional competence in the water sector that intersects water operation and management as well as new technologies, which is the consortium pool of expertise. 509971-LLP-1-2010-1-ES-ERASMUS-ECDSP 13 / 17
5. Plans for the Future A project like the one carried out has as a clear continuation action the execution of the programme itself. Thanks to this project the master programme has been conceived, designed and being ready to be implemented. So the start of running activities will add a new dimension to the project. There are however some actions that are clearly identified that makes the continuation of the project to be understood in the following terms: Launch the master programme and start academic activities: o Major and more important continuation of the project activities will be on the basis of completing the programme launching for the academic year to come 2013-14. The master programme will be immediately incorporated into the curriculum systems of the partner institutions. Dissemination activities: o Project website will be maintained as the programme website is the entering point for student enrolment. Master programme can also be accessed from the partner universities websites. o Dissemination and advertising activities. (Presentation at major student fairs, special attention on Asian countries) o Dissemination activities with reference to promotion of the implementation of joint degrees and contributing to disseminate the European Higher Education Area. Coordination meetings of the consortium partners as well as external advisory board. o Coordination meetings are expected once a year. At least lead academic representatives should meet in order to revise how programme is running and perform the corresponding updates on the financial endorsement (fees should be revised on a yearly basis) and other issues that may arise. Application for support funds o Actually looking for private funds in order to support the programme either providing (total/partial) grants for students. providing support to the programme in terms of its contents and by accepting students during the last semester to carry on the master thesis Application to EC calls under the LLP; such as the new ERASMUS MUNDUS programme, Intensive Programmes and related; in order to find complementary funds that may help either the coordination of the programme or scholarships for students. The continuation defined by the previous action lines are the main envisaged activities that are to be overlapped with other actions engaged by the consortium that will also help to maintain and reinforce cooperation and ensure continued cooperation. Among these other actions we can mention: participation in the TEMPUS programme, the expected call for the new ERASMUS for all, ERASMUS Accompanying Measures, FP7-ITN for research training. 509971-LLP-1-2010-1-ES-ERASMUS-ECDSP 14 / 17
6. Contribution to EU policies To promote joint projects within the European Higher Education Area encompasses the policy of the EU as much as it enhances European Higher Education in various fields. One of these fields is to walk towards an integrated programme that covers a complete cycle of study, as it appears in the priorities of Lifelong Learning projects. This renders the project strategic, as it can provide expertise for other institutions willing to undertake joint programmes and it can also work as a pilot model in stating processes and identifying obstacles in the way to convergence. WARDE also addresses directly some of the prior objectives of the Lifelong Learning (LLL) programme, namely the realization of an European area for lifelong learning, by means of a common commitment within the field; establishing permanent bridges between the academy and learning oriented programmes and the professional field. The project also addresses some of the specific and operational objectives in Lifelong Learning by working toward more transparent and more compatible curricula across Europe that enables the improvement of mobility schemes for both students and staff and guarantees quality credit transfer. In this regards, WARDE will contribute actively to meet the 2012 goal of 3 million student mobility across Europe and beyond. In more concrete terms, the project contributed to many LLL objectives and European Policy and Priorities, among others: To promote LLL in the European Area and high performance. To improve the quality and opportunities in Europe of LLL To activate European citizenship, social cohesion and international cooperation To foster language learning and cultural linguistic diversity To promote equality and equal opportunities for learners men and women To develop and use ICT services and sources To increase staff and student mobility in Europe To promote and support further multilateral cooperation in Europe To increase transparency and support transnational curriculum development To develop innovative practices 509971-LLP-1-2010-1-ES-ERASMUS-ECDSP 15 / 17
7. Identified added value Performing a cooperative project like the one envisaged in this proposal provides added value from several points of view (some of them expected a priori and some of them that appeared as a result of the joint work). - Added value for Europe: contribute to the development and application of the Bologna reform. Complete curriculum description and procedures according to the ECTS user s guide. Within the formulation of the European Higher Education Area every positive experience showing that integration of educational systems is possible helps and encourages the implementation of the Bologna reform and contributes to draw the picture of the European Higher Education Area. Joint study programmes are also central in contributing to the development of European citizenship and multicultural understanding. - Added value for the academic field: From an European perspective, the possibility of offering an innovative programme will retain EU best students as well as attract potential third country students. The programme will enhance the European perspective on a; more and more concerning; problem such as the water treatment and management problem. Different regions will need different solutions but having the Water Framework Directive as the reference for water regulation. - Added value for partner members (as individuals and as HE organisations): The need for an agreement on common policies and procedures has introduced new perspectives at local level. As far as international study programmes is concerned, the adopted solutions are commonly based on ad-hoc arrangements in terms of the concrete problems. There were no general regulations found. It has been noticed, from the local work with national and university bodies, that we helped the academic and administrative representatives in charge of decision positions to take the route on establishing regulations and a generic framework: o o As mentioned on the project achievements, having elaborated a complete and fully detailed Cooperation Agreement has been taken as a model for regulation among the institutions that cooperate on international study programmes. Definition of all programme modules and contents according to a common ECTS format. All the description of the curriculum has been developed according to the ECTS user s guide. This has introduced the possibility to go one step forward with respect to the individual situation on each institution. The status on the application of the ECTS is not uniform. In this sense the development of this project has helped to unify some procedures and introduce common ways of addressing the implementation of international study programmes. Contribution to Transnational work As a project with a clear transnational component two different sides have been experienced. On one side, from comparison with respect to other national projects ran by project partners, it is clear that there is an additional workload due to the transnational component. Transnational projects have associated an extra cost due to the multicultural/multilingual nature of the project partners. Also geographical movements are necessary that need for extra resources to be used. This extra cost has to be traded-off with respect to the desired project output. With this respect, the added value because of the transnational nature of this particular project is considered really high. The transnational contribution is identified in the
following terms: Distinctive view with respect other kinds of transnational projects. In this case we believe it is important to guarantee the cooperation among all members instead of having tasks done by separate partners that are put together by the lead-partner. Finally, the output of the project (this is to say the master programme) is to be implemented in all partner countries as a whole. It is imperative to feel as a consortium that is offering a master course instead of a set of partner institutions that delivers particular course modules. To deal with national problems within a transnational context. In this particular case it has been the development of a new master programme defined completely within the ECTS framework. This new framework is being adopted by all European institutions. Different levels of progress are however observed. Even within the same institution there may be clear differences on the actual level of implementation. To have a transnational consortium behind has made possible to add a new dimension to the situation that allowed overcoming some of the existing local difficulties (mainly due to a non full application of the ECTS user s guide). As it has been already mentioned as a major achievement of the project, the consortium has elaborated a consortium Cooperation Agreement with a full explanation of the procedures and guidelines that are to constitute the development framework of the designed master course. Special added value to a transnational project arises if partners are able to work as a team instead of quite autonomously. Even some degree of autonomy is always necessary, it is important to bear in mind that what matters is the consortium. In this case, the master programme will finally be offered by the WARDE consortium and the students will apply to the WARDE consortium, etc. In this sense, partners that are well known and trusted constitute, in some sense, a guarantee for a smooth running of activities on a transnational project (and most of the times also in national ones). In the case of the actual project, advantage has been taken of the existence of previous co-operation experiences. As a side effect, this project has contributed to tightening of existing relations among the partners. Therefore reinforcing the potential as a transnational team. 509971-LLP-1-2010-1-ES-ERASMUS-ECDSP 17 / 17